Globalization is an unavoidable trend in today’s age. People nowadays have more and more chances to interact with the whole world. Students study abroad to gain more advanced knowledge. Travelers travel all of the world to enrich their experiences. And even a small company starts to consider how to deal with international trade. More interactions happening mean more information exchanges. More information exchanges bring the result that more knowledge and wisdom are shared. As more and more knowledge and wisdom are shared, humans are walking forward together. However, what cannot be ignored is that during the same time that people interact all over the world, cultural differences are shown up. As an international student, I want to discuss the effect of cultural differences on international students in this paper based on my experiences and research. So what is the effect of culture differences? Is that positive for international students? Or does that have a negative impact for international students? Why it is important for people?
Some of people hold the opinion that the effect of cultural differences is same with culture shock—“the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a move between social environments, or simply travel to another type of life” (Macionis and Linda Gerber 54). This idea is totally fine. Because most of the time, cultural differences bring people, like international students, lots of inconvenience. Let’s prove this from two aspects: daily life and study.
From daily life to say, international students like me cannot easily understand what people are talking about so that they cannot join in the daily conversation t...
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...bt that it is important and necessary for people to know the effect of cultural differences more deeply in order to answer these questions. Only when people know more about these effects, could they find out efficient ways to help international students to adapt their daily life and study life successfully. Also only when people know more about these effects, they could identify international students’ special values and personalities.
Works Cited
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Levy, Diane. "The Shock of the Strange, the Shock of the Familiar: Learning from Study Abroad." Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council 1 (2000): 75-83. Print.
Macionis, John, and Linda Gerber. "Chapter 3 - Culture." Sociology. 7th edition ed. Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada Inc., 2010. 54-55. Print
Canada, G. o. (2013, 05 13). Defining Culture. Retrieved 03 12, 2014, from Statistics Canada: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/87-542-x/2011001/section/s3-eng.htm
American students have been such a question mark for the international students, their way of living and thinking is way different than any international student and this is noticeable. Students from all over the world notice a difficulty in dealing with the Americans and mentally understand them. Therefore, Rebekah Nathan argues that in her article “As Other See Us” and discusses the differences between the American and the international students. Moreover, she uses different evidence based on students from different backgrounds and cultures. Nathan goes over opinions and stories that happens with the international students in the US and what they think about these situation, which they considers weird in the eyes of the international students.
Brink, Pamela J. and Judith Saunders, “The Phases of Culture Shock.” Kiniry and Rose 332-333. Print.
Murray, Jane Lothian, Linden, Rick and Kendall, Diane. (2011). SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES, Fifth Canadian Edition by Nelson Education Limited, Published by Thomson Wadsworth, USA.
college gives the chance to meet meet new people from different country and different culture. A student have the chance make a friend from from another culture by taking the same class and studying together. By going to college the students will build knowledge not just about the subject that they are taking, but also they will build knowledge about the different culture which they will know by involving with the international students in study groups or project groups. I remember when I had to do informative speech in one of my classes. I chose my culture to be the topic of the speech. I informed my classmates about different facts about my culture. My classmates could not stop asking me question about my culture, my environment, and my country. My speech helped the student to understand my culture better and know more about my country. Going to college improve the student 's social communication. When I first went to college I couldn’t speak with American student because I had a thought that my language will not help me understand them or be a friend with one of them. However, throughout the study groups I did make an American friends. Going to college has helped me to get involved with the community
One of the first and most common problems most, if not all international students face when they first arrive in the UK for study is culture shock. culture shock is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary(2014) as the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. When students first move to the UK they observe and experience several things for the first time and it tends to overwhelm them. New international students often find themselves feeling powerless and unimportant which often forces them into self-isolation(Bailey, 2005). The culture shock also tends to result in the students being unable to make friends in their new community because they are unsure of what is customary and regarded in good light (Bailey, 2005).
Giddens, Anthony, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Applebaum and Deborah Carr. Introduction to Sociology. New York: Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
Pedersen, Paul. The Five Stages of Culture Shock: Critical Incidents Around the World. Westport, Connectcut: Greenwood Press, 1995.
Going to study in a new country can be a stressful experience, from learning the culture norms to new foods. Culture shock is common with international students. Culture shock can include, meeting new people, language barriers, social behaviors, and a sense of community. A students comfortability with the culture of their new home can determine their learning experience. It can be an emotional rollercoaster, being so far away from family and friends. American culture is difficult to understand. International students find Americans to be confusing. Social norms vary depending on the part of the country a person is in.
International students face many different challenges when studying abroad. This is due to many factors. First they are living in a country very far away from their own. The country they are studying in also has a very different way of life than theirs. Also the laws in foreign country are much different than the laws in their own country. Due to that they face a lot of problems trying to adapt to this new culture. Me personally as an international student in the US studying in ASU have faced three particularly difficult challenges that I was able to overcome through time. In this essay I will explain how international students can overcome tough challenges and situations.
For newly arrived international students who are in their late adolescence developmental stage, the sources of acculturative stress often include academic pressures, language difficulties, feelings of inferiority, difficulties in adjusting to new food or cultural values, lack of support, perceived discrimination, and homesickness (Andrade, 2006). In addition, international students may experience little acceptance, tolerance, and understanding of their cultural practices by members of the host country, and in some cases, racial discrimination (Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007). It is also possible that international students themselves may be intolerant or discriminatory towards other international students or members of the host culture. These difficulties can contribute to international students’ loneliness, alienation, mistrust, powerlessness, and depression. Although members (e.g., new college students) of the host culture may be affected by such difficulties, the combination of acculturation stressors has been found to weigh more heavily on international students who have limited access to resources (Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007). Specifically, when experiencing acculturative stress, they may
(1997) Sociology: Introductory Readings, Revised ed. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press. Hebding, D.E. and Leonard, G. (1996) Introduction to sociology: A text with readings, 5th ed. McGraw Hill Inc. (worldwide).
I always want to be an international student because I believe that learning in different surroundings will offer me a chance to explore the world. In order to become one, I have been preparing myself for this upcoming challenge. Long years of studying and paying most of my attention to school work made me wonder whether it is worthwhile to spend so much time on textbooks and became curious about what it is like to study in another country. In 2011, I seized the opportunity provided by my senior high school and became an exchange student in the U.S. . I didn’t fit in perfectly in the beginning, but throughout my exchange year, I had learned to adapt m...
Hadis, Benjamin. "Why Are They Better Students when They Come Back? Determinants of Academic Focusing Gains in the Study Abroad Experience." Frontiers Journal. Dickinson 11 (2005): 57-70. Print.
Firstly, university students will meet others from a wide variety of backgrounds and broaden their understanding of other cultures. Students who reside in halls will most likely encounter an international student; in 2013/14 they